Taxi And Private Hire Regulations….What Is It The Media Doesn’t Understand?… By Jim Thomas

What exactly is it that the media can’t see or understand about Taxi and Private Hire regulation?

Has this document become obsolete?

We already have sufficient legislation called the Private Hire Vehicles act 1998

Uber come along and amazingly, even though they don’t (can’t) conform to the regulations every other PH operator has to abide by, are licensed as an operator???

Uber don’t do bookings!

Contra to the PHV act 1998, their app allows them to illegally ply for immediate hire.

When originally licensed in 2012, they had no proper operating centre and ran their business from a rented desk space in More London. They didn’t even have a landline to take bookings, contra to the regulations laid down regarding applications for operator licences.

Even now over 3 years later, they still don’t have an operational landline to take bookings. In fact they have no way to pre book a job.

The Taxi trade call foul and ask the licensing authority (TfL) for regulations to be enforced -not new or more regulation, just enforce what we already have- and suddenly it’s a breach of Uber’s consumer rights !!!

What about the rights of every other taxi driver or minicab operator in the industry?

Would it be a breach of consumer rights to stop Taxi drives selling cheap cigarettes and cans of beer to passengers or set up an app to supply cheap booze to people outside public houses ?

After all, it’s what the public wants!!!

Or perhaps we could perform cheap dentistry without any training?

Got a toothache? Call a cab….we have the tools to do the job cheap…

Legislation is there to protect the public and should always be enforced fully.

Letting a company come here, who pay almost no tax, treats its workers like slaves, who work below the minimum wage, reliant on benefits, without a doubt is unfair competition.

Why has this one company, with massive funds available for lobbying support, been allowed to operate “outside” the very legislation that every other PH company has to abide by ?

Legislation put in place to protect the public!

Surely this is a breach of all other Taxi and Private Hire operators consumer rights?

What is it that the media can’t grasp about this ?

We are told this is allowed because it’s what the public want!!!

But, as Steve McNamara recently pointed out in an ITV interview, a huge proportion of the public want to be able to buy controlled substances that are illegal. They can’t, because there is legislation against this, just like the legislation that governs minicabs and Private Hire operators.

Unfortunately at present and in regards to Uber, the current Private Hire legislation, isn’t being enforced.

The Taxi trade doesn’t want or need less regulation, it’s there for a reason!

We are proud of the fact we have all completed the knowledge of London process.

Yes it’s hard, but it produces quality drivers who are regularly voted not just good or excellent, but “The best in the world”.

We don’t need more legislation in regards to PH, we already have exactly what is needed.

Why should one company be given exemption from the regulations, to be able to flout the law and operate in anyway they see fit?

Has our licensing authority become corrupt?

Or are they just too terrified to take on this multi billion dollar company?

After all, when was the last time TfLs legal team actually had a major victory?

Instead of trying to fix the situation by watering down the required standards to enter the Licensed Taxi trade, perhaps interfering politicians should be investigating why our licensing authority (TfL) are not enforcing the rules and regulations to the same standard as pre 2012. (Over to you Tom Watson)

All our industry asks for, is to have the rules and regulations we already have in place, enforced.

What part of this request does the media, and interfering politicians not get???

1 Comment

A .Taxidriver
on January 1, 2016 at 2:10 pm

Very well said , it makes my blood boil, money talks bullshit walks, I say that the man or people at the top are being influenced with a golden ticket, why else would you allow this to happen, it should never even have gone this far, it’s despicable, TFL cannot refuse to issue licences but can say what goes in and out the capital . How does this work. CORRUPTION. You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours, it’s said when voting in the general election a no vote is a wasted vote I don’t see it like that. I will not be voting for a mayor or PM. As Noel coward once said “FREDDIE , EVERYONE IN THE WORLD IS BENT “